Competing Concerns on Emerging Welfare Technologies. A review of eight prevailing debates in current literature

Welfare technologies (WT) such as telecare, service robots, and other digital innovations for public sector service delivery are expected to improve and even radically transform health- and eldercare. However, despite political awareness and financial investments, many studies report promising inventions that fail to become implemented on a larger scale. Current research draws a fragmented and heterogeneous picture of this problem, with divergent implications for practice. This article reviews and discusses the extant literature to identify eight competing concerns central to how WT can become implemented on a large scale. By highlighting and contrasting practical and theoretical positions in this emerging and interdisciplinary research topic, the review contributes to understanding the complexities that managers and policy-makers must address to diffuse and sustain WT innovations from small to large scale

Competing Concerns in Welfare Technology Innovation: A Systematic Literature Review

Welfare technologies (WT) such as telecare and service robots are expected to improve and even radically transform service delivery in health- and eldercare. Yet despite political awareness and financial investments, many studies report promising inventions that fail to become implemented on a larger scale. Current research draws a fragmented and heterogeneous picture of this problem, with divergent implications for practice. In this article, I review and discuss the extant literature and identify eight competing concerns that are central to how WT can become implemented on a large scale. By highlighting and contrasting practical and theoretical positions in this emerging and interdisciplinary research topic, I contribute conceptually to the understanding of the competing concerns in WT innovation that managers and policy-makers must balance in order to support the critical transition from small-scale invention to large-scale implementation

Organizing for Emerging Welfare Technology: Launching a Drug-Dispensing Robot for Independent Living

Emerging technologies, such as robots, virtual homecare, and sensor technologies, have considerable potentials to transform health- and eldercare. These so-called welfare technologies (WTs) are expected to increase the quality of services, empower citizens, improve working conditions for professionals, and reduce costs for care providers. However, as this transformation this involves both technological development and radical changes in how these services are organized, many promising WTs fail to advance beyond the pilot stage and create value on a large scale. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal case study of the emergence of a service robot in primary healthcare, from project launch to testing, development, and evaluation. Seeking new ways of organizing emerging technologies, nine Danish municipalities and a consortium of four private companies launched a collaborative project, aiming to develop and implement the use of a drug-dispensing robot for patients living at home. The analysis traces how project managers respond to competing concerns on innovation strategy, testing, coordination, and user mobilization and how these critical decisions shape the project’s trajectory. As such, the paper sheds new light on how to understand and manage competing concerns in the process of organizing emergent WTs

10 år med velfærdsteknologi: Strategi og praksis

Velfærdsteknologidagsordenen indtager en væsentlig rolle i diskussion om det danske velfærdssamfund, navnlig på sundheds- og ældreområdet. Artiklen redegør for tendensen og ridser baggrunden op for den aktuelle interesse for velfærdsteknologi som teknologisk satsningsområde. Vi byder ind med en definition af paraplybegrebet velfærdsteknologi og viser, hvordan forhåbningerne til velfærdsteknologi afspejler fire sameksisterende perspektiver; et effektivitets-, empowerment-, medarbejder- og vækstperspektiv. Baseret på resultater fra telemedicinprojektet TeleCare Nord illustrerer vi, hvordan de fire velfærdsteknologiperspektiver udfolder sig i praksis, og vi diskuterer udfordringer forbundet med at realisere forhåbningerne til velfærdsteknologi